


The Goggles, They Do... Something?

by Ambitious_Rubbish



Series: Miscellaneous Miscellanea [4]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-03
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:14:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26100010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ambitious_Rubbish/pseuds/Ambitious_Rubbish
Summary: What rotten luck! You’ve broken your arm. The only person who can offer you emergency medical assistance is the person who broke your arm in the first place.Fear not! They have access to highly experimental technology that ought to… um… do something.Maybe.
Series: Miscellaneous Miscellanea [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1910671
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for: http://falloutkinkmeme.livejournal.com/5646.html?thread=14150414#t14150414

“Well, I think it's broken.”

Poor Lisa would have been on the verge of tears and howling with pain if it hadn't been for the massive quantities of Med-X coursing through her system. As it was, she felt just a touch numb – and maybe a little mortified, given that her forearm was hanging at a _very_ unnatural angle and she couldn't make herself stop staring at it. “Really? You _think?_ ”

Veronica was no stranger to sarcasm, but she wasn't used to her sass coming with a good-sized helping of traumatic injury. She winced. “Sorry. I'm sorry! Lemme just get Arcade-”

“What were you thinking?!”

“I was thinking that you would step left and duck, not walk right into that swing!”

“Well... well you were wrong!”

“Clearly!”

“Hey, do you two mind keeping it- holy mother of God! What happened to your arm?!”

“You've never seen a broken arm before? Some doctor you are,” Lisa snarled.

“I meant-”

“We were sparring,” Veronica said with a sigh, “And Lisa here walked right into what was _supposed_ to be an obvious feint. I just... ugh. She saves the entire Mojave from the predations of Caesar's Legions and yet she can't recognize a decoy punch when she sees one.”

“I need more drugs.”

“How much of that Med-X have you taken?”

Lisa opened the fist on her unwounded arm, spilling a handful of empty paper wrappers to the ground. “Uh... this many.”

Arcade slapped a hand across his forehead. “Oh, my word.” He quickly ushered her over to a nearby chair, sat her down and gently stretched her arm out onto a table so he could look at it.

“Well?” Veronica chewed nervously on her lower lip.

“Oh, it's probably broken, but without X-rays it's hard to tell exactly where the break is. There's too much swelling.” He winced at the mangled lump of blue and purplish skin that looked only vaguely like a human arm and squinted at it, as if by doing so, he could discern where amidst that mass of flesh lay the underlying bone.

The Brotherhood scribe pondered for a moment or two before her eyes suddenly lit up with inspiration. “Hey, I know! Lisa brought back a few neat gadgets from her trip out to that research-y type place-”

“Ah, yes, that 'research-y type place,'” Arcade said with a roll of his eyes as he carefully probed at the courier's broken arm. “You are the very model of precision and accuracy.”

“Shush. Anyway, I think I know of something that'll help.” She dashed off to one of the rooms they used as storage, and within seconds, there were the nearly deafening sounds of frenzied rummaging: containers being opened. Metallic... things... being tossed onto the floor. Some inarticulate swearing. (Which only grew even more indecipherable when Arcade recognized the loud but unmistakable sound of a heavy object being dropped on a human foot.) But then finally...

“Aha!”

“Joy of joys, she's found it. Whatever 'it' is,” the doctor muttered to himself.

Lisa heard him anyway and voiced her own “enthusiasm.” “Whooopty doo.” By this point, she was only barely conscious. She'd propped her head up on her closed fist, but the arm doing the propping was wavering by the second.

“Here.”

Being shoved into Arcade's hands was a pair of awkward, clunky looking goggles, liberally festooned with all manner of... doodads and gizmos. (He was sure that was the technical term for what they were called.) “What... what _is_ this?”

“Lisa said they were supposed to be some kind of 'X-ray specs.' You know, put them on, you can see people's bones and stuff. Should be just what you need so you can set that break.”

He looked skeptical, but nodded and began fiddling with the strap on the goggles. At full extension there was just enough wiggle room that he could place them on his face while still wearing his glasses. “Ok, is there a switch or- wait, found it.”

The goggles powered up with an audible whine, and he gasped, shaking his head. “Ugh. That... that's going to take some getting used to.”

“Are they working?”

“I suppose so. These... it's... it's _very_ disorienting.”

“But can you see the fracture?”

“Give me just a _moment,_ Veronica.” He slowly turned his head to look at his patient, and his jaw dropped open.

“... Arcade?”

The doctor peeled the goggles from his face. He'd gone white as a sheet. “These aren't going to help. Quickly. Maybe we can use her Pip Boy to run a scan instead. Help me uncouple it from her arm.”

“But-”

“NOW.”

Veronica still wasn't sure what had startled him, but the doctor's tone was one that brooked absolutely no arguments. Shrugging to herself, she did what he asked, very gingerly holding Lisa's broken arm in place while Arcade worked the Pip Boy off, then maneuvered it into position to get a good reading of the fracture.

“Ok. There it is. Now just keep her steady while I-”

“Yeeeerrrp!” Even flying high on about five hundred times the recommended dosage of painkillers, Lisa still felt it as broken bone shifted underneath her skin. She whined like a wounded puppy. It was sad and adorable both at the same time. Veronica felt sick with guilt. But eventually, the wounded arm was set in a rudimentary cast and poor Lisa pumped full of even more medication – this time with the contents of a couple of stimpaks to help promote rapid healing.

And then they ushered her to her bed and left her to sleep things off.

… and that should've been the end of it.

Except for one thing.

What had the doc seen through those goggles?

This was the burning question that kept Veronica awake that evening. Well, that and “How did they manage to get the cream filling into the middle of those Fancy Lads Snack Cakes, anyway?” But really, the first one was more important.

Her curiosity demanded an answer.

So she sat up, got out of bed, got dressed, headed to the common room and found the goggles right where Arcade had left them. And she put them on.

“Whoa!”

Even through the window blinds, the light coming into the suite from the The Strip made things overwhelmingly bright. Looking through those goggles was a migraine just waiting to happen. But even so, she couldn't figure out what it was that could possibly have spooked one Arcade Gannon into ripping these goggles off his head like they'd forced him to witness every unspeakable ancient, eldritch horror of the universe in one solitary, agonizing moment.

At least until she raised her hand to her face.

She expected to see the bones and cartilage and other things of her hand, or perhaps the muscles of that hand shifting underneath her skin as she flexed her fingers. But instead, all she saw was... her hand. Skin and all, just as if she were looking at it with her naked eyes. That wasn't all that unusual. What _was_ unusual, however, was that her arm appeared the same way. She could see it quite clearly. Skin slightly tanned and just a touch weathered from constant sun exposure, but other than that, it was her arm, same as it always was.

There was just one caveat. Her hand was indeed bare. Her arm... was tucked safely away in the sleeve of her robe. And yet she could see it plain as day through the goggles.

Veronica tapped her foot. She knew she was wearing boots. Clunky, heavy boots, but comfortable – made for long walks through rough terrain. She loved the way they had just a tiny bit of roll in the heel, and plenty of room in the toes so she never felt cramped even after hours of trudging around in the oppressive desert heat.

She looked down and wiggled her toes.

There they were, waving at her.

Huh.

She slowly let her eyes drift up... herself. Bare ankles.

Higher.

Naked calves.

Higher still.

Thighs.

Up some more.

“HOLY CRAP.” She tore the goggles off and dropped them onto the table with a loud *Thunk.*

“Okaaaaay... so... that explains a lot.”

For a few long minutes she just stood there, all alone in the dark, wondering what to do next. She'd come in here seeking the answer to a question. She'd gotten the answer to that question all right, and now she wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Especially since what she'd found out pretty much just raised further questions, like “A device that could see people's bones through their clothes and through their skin could be pretty useful, but what good was a device that could just see through people's clothes?!”

…

She was ashamed to admit she spent far longer thinking about that than she probably should have before she absconded with the goggles back to her bedroom.


	2. Chapter 2

“Hey, how you feeling?”

“Mmmnnnggg...”

When Veronica ran into Cass in the hall the next morning, the redhead had been reduced to communicating in monosyllabic grunts. In other words, a typical Monday. Cass' hangover was so wretched, she didn't even notice the new eyewear Veronica was sporting, but Veronica was certainly appreciating her new... perspective on life.

“Ooooh... someone's been fastidious about their landscaping... very nice...”

The real prize, however, waited for her at the breakfast table, where she found Lisa, still cradling her wounded arm to her side. Through the miracles of chemistry, the broken bone had already begun to knit back together, so she didn't absolutely need a sling to keep it in, but it still ached, and she was still miserable.

And yet, Veronica couldn't help but grin as she sat down across from her.

“Hiya. How's the arm?”

The Courier didn't even bother to look up from her cup of coffee. “Still busted. Still hurts.”

“Yeah... sorry, but it's healing, right?”

“Mmmm. What are you doing up so early?”

“Huh? Oh... dunno... thought I might... hrm...” She trailed off, not even bothering to finish the sentence.

Lisa turned her head, curious as to what it was that had made Veronica's voice suddenly go all dreamy and wistful-sounding. That was when she noticed the ridiculous headgear. “What are you wearing?”

“Pardon?”

But whatever it was Veronica was selling, her friend wasn't buying any of it. Lisa might still have been a little loopy on pain meds, but she was more than lucid enough to realize that Veronica was trying to pull a fast one on her. She recognized those goggles. “Those... those are the goggles I brought back from the Big M-T, aren't they? The ones that... that...”

The other shoe made a pretty impressive thud when it finally finished dropping.

Lisa made a desperate lunge across the table that sent dishware clattering to the floor and the sad remnants of a half-consumed breakfast flying in her wake. Room-temperature coffee splashed across a chair, while a partially-gnawed doughnut bounced across Veronica's lap. Neither of the women noticed the mess, however. Veronica was too entranced by the... scenery, and the blonde? Was livid. “Veronica Renata Santangelo! Give me- give me those goggles this instant!”

But the Brotherhood Scribe had ducked back out of range of the hand swiping towards her face and was giggling with almost manic glee as a pair of perky little boobs, tipped with the most adorable little pink nipples flashed into view just above the edge of the table. Veronica kicked her chair back even as Lisa struggled to her feet, torn between attempting another wild flail at Veronica's face or retreating and trying to cover herself up. She chose discretion.

Discretion with a healthy dose of yelling.

“Take those off right now!”

“But if I did that, I wouldn't be able to appreciate all the hard work you've put in with those stomach crunches,” Veronica cackled.

The blonde had always been on the small and slender side, but the past few months of nearly constant combat had really smoothed out her rough edges – or, perhaps it was more accurate to say, given her a whole host of new ones. Just about all her soft spots had been replaced with lean, hard muscle, and Veronica found herself snickering quietly under her breath as Lisa desperately tried to hide her tightly toned abdomen behind her hands and arms.

It was a losing battle, of course. She'd turn at the waist, trying to present as... narrow a profile as possible, but all that did was accentuate the flaring curve of her hips. And of course she couldn't simply turn her back on the brunette, because that would expose... other vulnerabilities. Instead, she tried reaching for a nearby couch cushion, angling it to place it between herself and those infernal goggles, but that only made Veronica giggle harder.

“These things go through the pillow, too.”

“Damn it!”

Veronica cocked her head to the side and grinned. “It's a very nice view, you know. You should be proud.”

But Lisa seemed more mortified than proud. “Turn 'em off!” she insisted.

Finally, the scribe appeared as if she were going to relent. “Oh, fine.”

Lisa let out a little sigh of relief.

“Just one more thing. Do you think you could maybe do a little twirl for me?”

“VERONICA!”


End file.
